1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to musical instrument holders. More particularly, the present invention relates to a holder for mounting multiple percussion instruments, such as conga and other drums.
For ease of play, musicians typically mount musical instruments on holders. Each holder is usually a separate assembly without connection to other holders. This arrangement creates several problems.
First, the amount of area lost, due to the numerous holders, reduces the musician's flexibility especially with respect to his total instrument assembly and his ability to reach each instrument. Clearly, the numerous holders also take up a large amount of space on a stage or in a studio. Thus, the musician has to make due with fewer instruments than he may desire for a particular musical application or the ability to work with each instrument selected is impeded due to the lack of space. Also, the musician will impinge on space needed by other musicians playing on the stage or in the studio.
Second, the several holders do not work together to provide stability for each other. Also, playing an instrument, e.g. a conga or other drum, often requires that significant force be applied to the instrument and its holder. Without stability, a musician faces a substantial risk that the instrument and holder will fall over while the instrument is being played.
A solution to the first problem is to mount several instruments on one holder. However, there will be a problem of stability especially if one instrument is removed. There is also a problem that a single holder for multiple instruments must function so as not to affect the tone of the mounted instruments. To date, no holder can simultaneously mount more than two large musical hand drums such as congas.
Regardless of the number of instruments actually mounted to the holder, conventional holders require dismounting of all instruments and a large degree of disassembly for storage and travel. In addition, the instruments are often several pieces of a much larger total instrument assembly that must also be disassembled. Also, the instrument assembly may affect the ability of the musician to have ready access to other instruments on the stand.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An example of a musical drum stand is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,126,075 issued on Nov. 21, 1978 to Kurosaki. This patent shows holding a pair of drums in set positions. An upper mounting assembly is placed on the drum. The upper mounting assembly is a receptacle designed to accommodate a lower mounting assembly, which is a horizontal bar on the stand. After permanently attaching the upper mounting assembly to the body of the drum with screws, the drum is simply set on the stand and kept in place by the interaction of the upper mounting assembly and the lower mounting assembly. A vibration damper may be sandwiched between the body of the drum and the mounting device so that vibration is not transferred from the drum to the stand. This vibration damper aids in the stability of the stand. This patent envisions two drums mounted in position 180.degree. from each other. Three large musical drums cannot be mounted to this stand. More importantly, this stand cannot be adapted to hold more than two large musical drums.
Another musical drum stand is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,112,807, which issued on Sep. 12, 1978, to Quibell. This stand is a rectangular frame with several supporting legs extending out from the bottom of the rectangular frame. The frame is large and heavy enough so that the seat mounted on the frame can support the percussion musician while playing the mounted conga drums. Two conga drums are mounted on the frame by a band around the body of the conga drum. The band on the congas will create pressure that could change the desired acoustic properties of the congas. This stand is large, cumbersome, and permits only two congas be placed on the stand.
An example of a musical instrument holder for musical drum stands is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,453,446, which issued on Jun. 12, 1984 to Hoshino. U.S. Pat. No. 4,453,446 is directed to a holder for supporting a pair of tom-toms. This holder has a two L-shaped arms contained within respective horizontal mounts. Each L-shaped arm supports a tom-tom on one end and has a hinge ball at the other end. The hinge ball is rotatably journaled inside the horizontal mount. The two L-shaped arms are adjusted to the preferred position, then wing-nuts are tightened down on the hinge balls to hold the two L-shaped arm in place.
A second example of a musical instrument holder for musical drum stands is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,804,747, which issued on Sep. 8, 1998 to Chen. U.S. Pat. No. 5,804,747 also has two L-shaped arms secured by wing-nuts within horizontal mounts. The hinge ball is rotatably journaled inside the horizontal mount. In addition, the horizontal mount surrounding one L-shaped arm may be annularly moved so that the angle between the two horizontal mounts can be changed. Several wing-nuts must be loosened to adjust the position of the L-shaped arms and then tightened before playing.
These prior art patents are cumbersome, and do not address the issue of stability for the stand itself or the mounted drums.
Accordingly, a need exists for a musical instrument holder that easily mounts multiple musical instruments while maintaining adequate stability, even when less than the total possible number of musical instruments are mounted. A need also exists for such a holder that does not affect the acoustical sound of the instruments.